Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The boys checked out a movie from the library, Nickelodeon's Barnyard or something. It stars a cow/bull named Otis with a male voice but an udder. I'm confused. I don't think it's a "progressive" [trans-bovine?] thing, but I guess I don't now. Shudder. I suppose I should check it out.

According to the Nickelodeon interweb, "Otis is a cow with charisma...Ultimately, he's a good cow who cares about his friends...and even the farmer. " [emphasis is mine]

Julie's grandpa Andy, the dairy farmer, would have a few words with the show creators about that.

Why was I telling you all of this?

Oh yeah.

Apparently in one of the episodes, there is a monkey and they bribe him with banana lasagna.

The boys thought this was hilarious.

But now my wheels were turning.

So I was going to to come to you all for suggestions. I had some ideas: layers of 'Nilla Wafers, pudding, whipping cream, bananas, maybe some yellow cake...

But then I got to thinking, "This is 2011. This is the age of the internet. Someone out there has done this." Sure enough, a search for "banana lasagna" turns up almost 2200 hits, most of which look like recipes. They star things that I had thought, plus ingredients like pound cake, strawberries, Cool Whip, etc.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

At this stage in our lives, vacations that are less than 48 hours are the best kind.

As Noah pointed out, if you go on a longer vacation some of the time needs to be downtime; the problem is, with 4 kids and one on the way, there is no vacation downtime. Well, at least no relaxing for the adults of the clan, anyway.

The environments aren't child proof, you are constantly having to be one step ahead of the "I'm starving" cries and apparently just "tough it out" is not as easy for a 4 year old as it is for a 33 year old.

Last year we took a November vacation to Wisconsin Dells. We had a great time, but it was somewhat stressful. This year we decided to take a shorter trip and just head north a couple of hours and stay at a waterpark hotel overnight.

We got a late start on Sunday because of a volunteer commitment, and so we didn't arrive at the hotel until 8:15pm. The waterpark was open until 10, however, so we got some swimming in upon arrival. When you have a family of six, nothing is cheap- but how is this for a deal? Our room was $100 and it included a room with 2 queens and a foldout, microwave and fridge. It also overlooked the waterpark, which is worth more than you think when you have an almost 2 year old. Berean usually tries to destroy hotel rooms, but she was so interested in looking out the window that she left everything else alone. Included in our room rate was a large pizza, a couple of drinks (Pepsi!), continental breakfast and waterpark evening/morning passes for the 6 of us. Definitely a good deal.

The waterpark was less stressful than WI Dells had been because this one was smaller and there were only a couple of very small areas that were over 48 inches in depth. Basically, Deacon and Roman were able to go down all slides and we didn't have to worry about their safety in the pools

as much as we did last year. Of course, one of us had to be with Berean and Lincoln, but the whole park was more at our kids level which made it easier to handle. Berean was content to chillax in her life jacket on a tube with me in the lazy river. If we weren't on the lazy river, she just let me carry her around the pool- as long as she had a ball in her hands. Lincoln was able to go down slides with Noah and to do some of the other activities on his own, as well as just playing in the water.

After we left the hotel the next day we got lunch and then went to the local aquarium. We are discovering more and more places where it is cheaper for us to buy annual memberships than just to pay one time admission fees for our whole family. We had a good time looking at fish and then headed for a huge Christmas light walk-through display.

We headed for home about 24 hours after we arrived.

And now we are home, working on our "70 things to do before baby" list and enjoying Thanksgiving week!

(I am planning to update the list on the blog soon, but I have been having some problems with blogger. I am about 8 miles behind on my walking, as well, so I gotta spend some more time getting caught up on that!)

Sunday, November 13, 2011

I wrote the below post several days ago, but of course it never got finished and published. My sister wrote a comment on my last post, "Where ARE YOU?"

Where am I?

I am in the basement, painting furniture.

I am in the kitchen, making food.

I am walking.

I am running.

I am in the waiting room at the doctor's office.

I am in the living room, reading stories.

I am in the dining room, teaching math.

I am in the bathroom, giving baths.

I am in the car, listening to cds.

I am making appointments,

crossing things off.

I am feeling the baby kick.

I am in bed, not sleeping.

I am at the hospital, saving lives.

I am holding my children, cutting fingernails.

I am in my yard, raking leaves.

I am here.

---

11-08-2011

Today I read a post by Lindsey, over at ifweabideinhim, that inspired me. I love this idea of a blessing box.

Last night a friend of ours auctioned off all of his "stuff" in order to donate the money to feed starving children. Tonight we are going to an organization to package food for starving children as part of our friend's birthday celebration.

As I look around my house, as I look at our bank account, as I walk through the grocery store, I am struck again over how blessed we are. Deacon wears a shirt that says "1 in 7 people go hungry everyday". We have (nearly!) 7 people in our family now. I think about moms trying to find scraps for their children to eat, I think of brothers stealing things to feed hungry siblings. I think about instances of human trafficking brought on by extreme poverty.

And then I look around my house again.

This year I am determined to give. Give more than I want to. Give more than I have to. Give to bless others and to teach my children that feeding the hungry is part of our work as Christians. We have a picture now that says, "Blessed are those who are generous, because they feed the poor." Proverbs 22:9.

Yes, I want an addition. Yes, I need a new couch. And I think those things are fine - but I refuse to let them take the place of GIVING and of service. As I explain to the boys,"we don't buy you everything you want- not because we don't have the money, but simply because we believe there are things more important than toys to spend our money on."

Oh, how I want them to be generous. Oh, how I want them to love people.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

*There are flies in my house. They are skittish things (as Deacon would say) and I am having trouble killing them

*Berean is talking a lot. Her most common word is "yeah" with which she answers questions that she wants to answer in the affirmative and questions that she doesn't understand. Today when I got home I saw that she had made quite a mess with a blue marker. I said, "Berean, was daddy keeping an eye on you?" She violently shook her head "no". Poor Noah.

*Two of the boys are now on antibiodics for strep throat. Their only symptoms were occasional headaches. I finally brought them in on Wed morning for cultures, because I know sometimes kids don't get the typical sore throat with strep. Their rapid cultures were negative, and the nurse told me that they would incubate the cultures for 36 to 48 hours and call us by 1pm if they were positive. By 1pm on Friday we had not been called, so, it having been 48 hours, I figured we were in the clear. Friday night Deacon got a headache again and I started to worry that he was going to start getting migraines or something. Saturday at noon (while we were on our way home from a party with their friends), the clinic called and said their strep tests were positive. I feel really bad about exposing people in the interim between the negative and positive results, but I am glad that it is strep and that Deacon is not headed for a lifetime of migraines. I also think that it would definitely be easier if people who had strep would have a sore throat, and maybe a temp over 99?! Seriously, shouldn't those be some of the rules?

*My mom and I took the kids to the Children's museum this week. We had a good time. Berean and Lincoln especially had fun, and once again I felt bad that I don't do those "age appropriate" kind of things with them more often. It is just so hard to balance the older ones and the younger ones. There are not enough hours in the day, that is for sure.

*I am using my extra hour tonight to write this post.

*Today I painted Berean's room. We are slowly getting closer to getting everything moved around and into new positions. My basement and garage, however, look like we just moved in. I know we will get there, but right now getting everything resettled feels very daunting. Hopefully by the end of the weekend she will be moved in to her new room and the office will be semi-established in our room. That will help my blogging- sitting at the kitchen table with a laptop in my 33 week pregnant state is not very comfortable.

*I am glad I don't have a desk job. Honestly, pushing beds and moving people around is easier right now then sitting. The baby jabs a foot under my ribs when I sit down and it is quite uncomfortable.

*Today I broke the rung of the bunk bed ladder when I stood on it to change sheets on the upper bunk. I also weigh more than several of my friend's husbands. Yep, I am getting to the point of looking forward to having this baby and starting 1/2 marathon training in earnest. Oh, to be small again!

*All that aside, though, I am not expecting this baby to come until after it's due date. I will be totally surprised if it does come early and it will probably throw me for a loop.

Well, I'd better go on another walk if I am ever going to get this 210 miles in before baby!

our family

In case you wanted to know, I'm...

About Me

THE BLOG TITLE:
Our 3 boys were all born on the 22nd of their respective months. It sure makes it easy to remember birthdays!
ABOUT ME:
I am not crafty. I can't sew. I am not into cooking. Thus, you won't find patterns, cooking tips and mad organizational plans around here. What I do have is 3 crazy little boys, two adorable little girls, a funny and smart husband, a nursing job in a MICU, triathlete successes and failures and an occasional thought on politics, morals and the God who created us all.